Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Central Lymph Node Metastasis: Is It a Reliable Indicator of Lateral Node Involvement in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma?

  • Published:
World Journal of Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the reliability of central lymph node metastases in predicting lateral node involvement in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Methods

This retrospective study consists of 121 patients with PTC who underwent ipsilateral selective neck dissection. The quantitative relationship between central and lateral lymph node metastases (LNM) was analyzed.

Results

A total of 86 patients (71.1%) had pathologically proven LNM; 55 patients had LNM in both the central and lateral compartments, 22 patients had only central LNM, and 9 patients had skip metastasis to lateral nodes. The sensitivity of central node involvement to predict lateral LNM was 85.9%, the specificity was 61.4%. The presence of two or more positive central nodes was associated with a high incidence of lateral LNM (70–93.3%), when compared with none (20.5%) or one (47.4%) positive central node.

Conclusions

The node status of the central compartment is moderately predictive of that of lateral compartment. The presence of two or more positive central nodes may be of value in predicting lateral node involvement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hay ID, Thompson GB, Grant CS et al (2002) Papillary thyroid carcinoma managed at the Mayo Clinic during six decades (1940–1999): temporal trends in initial therapy and long-term outcome in 2444 consecutively treated patients. World J Surg 26:879–885

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Shaha AR, Shah JP, Loree TR (1996) Patterns of nodal and distant metastasis based on histologic varieties in differentiated carcinoma of the thyroid. Am J Surg 172:692–694

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Noguchi S, Noguchi A, Murakami N (1970) Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. I. Developing pattern of metastasis. Cancer 26:1053–1060

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Greene FL, Compton CC, Fritz AG et al (2006) Thyroid. AJCC Cancer Staging Atlas, 1st edn. Springer, New York, pp 67–73

    Google Scholar 

  5. Goropoulos A, Karamoshos K, Christodoulou A et al (2004) Value of the cervical compartments in the surgical treatment of papillary thyroid carcinoma. World J Surg 28:1275–1281

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Gimm O, Rath FW, Dralle H (1998) Pattern of lymph node metastases in papillary thyroid carcinoma. Br J Surg 85:252–254

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Ito Y, Jikuzono T, Higashiyama T et al (2006) Clinical significance of lymph node metastasis of thyroid papillary carcinoma located in one lobe. World J Surg 30:1821–1828

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Machens A, Holzhausen HJ, Dralle H (2004) Skip metastases in thyroid cancer leaping the central lymph node compartment. Arch Surg 139:43–45

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Cooper DS, Doherty GM, Haugen BR et al (2006) The American Thyroid Association Guidelines Taskforce. Management guidelines for patients with thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer. Thyroid 16:109–142

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Noguchi S, Murakami N, Yamashita H et al (1998) Papillary thyroid carcinoma: modified radical neck dissection improves prognosis. Arch Surg 133:276–280

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Ito Y, Higashiyama T, Takamura Y et al (2007) Risk factors for recurrence to the lymph node in papillary thyroid carcinoma patients without preoperatively detectable lateral node metastasis: validity of prophylactic modified radical neck dissection. World J Surg 31:2085–2091

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Sivanandan R, Soo KC (2001) Pattern of cervical lymph node metastases from papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. Br J Surg 88:1241–1244

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Kupferman ME, Patterson M, Mandel SJ et al (2004) Patterns of lateral neck metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 130:857–860

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Roh JL, Kim JM, Park CI (2008) Lateral cervical lymph node metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma: pattern of nodal metastases and optimal strategy for neck dissection. Ann Surg Oncol 15:1177–1182

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Sir Run Run Shaw Institute of Clinical Medicine of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310016, China

    Gui-Zhou Xiao & Li Gao

Authors
  1. Gui-Zhou Xiao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Li Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gui-Zhou Xiao.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Xiao, GZ., Gao, L. Central Lymph Node Metastasis: Is It a Reliable Indicator of Lateral Node Involvement in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma?. World J Surg 34, 237–241 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-009-0347-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-009-0347-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation